Survival is an instinct...

Well, I am sure everyone who reads this has had some form of grappling training or is thinking about it. If you train BJJ, the first experiance you have is everyone trying to kill you. Your first classes will be the worst that you have ever had.
Now that I have scared away the feint of heart, the first class is the scariest. All the higher belts have a point to prove, to test your resolve. Will you stay or you will go? My classmates were somewhat nice, they showed me the basics and then proceeded to knee-belly mount me, collar choke me, and arm bar me.
Naturally, I had absolutlely no knowledge of Jiu jitsu and these 180lb guys were throwing this 250lb guy around like a ragdoll. So here I was laid on my back getting dominated and shoving and pushing and hold on for dear life. I would push and then I would have to tap to an arm bar, or I would lay there and get tapped from a choke.
I was dumbfounded at how these guys could do that, granted a lot of them have been training for 2-3 years. I discovered Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu Jitsu University, and I began to study. White belt is the survival stage, and I was not surviving. I was floundering about and trying to use my strength to get out of inferior positions. It is frustrating to get tapped everytime you move or everytime you do not move.

I took a moment at each training session afterwards and started trying to survive instead of escape. Survibality is something that is instinctive. Your body reacts and adapts to the situation to overcome the situation. If you do not train your body to be instinctive and react ,then you will not survive. That is why it is key to drill and have mat time. If you are starting BJJ or anything, it is going to be frustrating, because you have not learned to survive yet. It takes time on the mats and eventually you will learn to tuck your arms, hide your neck, or block the chokes. Just grin and press on, it will get better. How many of you struggled at the beginning and how did you over come? Email me abair1981@gmail.com if you have any questions,comments, or feedback to improve the content. Please feel free to post your comments.